A revision of Vittadinia A.Rich. (Compositae) together with reinstatement of Eurybiopsis DC. and description of a new geunus, Camptacra.

Abstract

It is reported that Gaudichaud was correct in describing, under Brachycome Cass., three species, B. triloba, B. dentata and B. spathulata. Reference is made to the nomenclatural status of these species in accordance with the results of a revision of Brachycome by Davis (1948). De Candolle erred in transferring the species to Vittadinia A. Rich, for which the New Zealand V. australis is the type. Reasons are given for regarding V. triloba (Gaudich.) DC. as synonymous with V. australis var. dissecta Benth., and the variety is raised to specific rank. Included with V. australis and V. dissecta in Vittadinia s. str. (i.e. in Vittadinia subgenus Vittadinia) are V. cuneata DC. (a name which can be applied to a complex group of taxa widespread in southern and eastern Australia) and a further 17 species of which the following are new: V. cervicularis (with four varieties), V. constricta, V. condyloides, V. decora, V. eremaea, V. humerata, V. nullarborensis, V. pustulata, V. simulans and V. sulcata, while V. gracilis (J. D. Hook.) N. Burbidge and V. australasica (Turcz.) N. Burbidge are new combinations. V. scabra DC. and a group of taxa which have been referred to it or, incorrectly, to V. macrorhiza (DC.) A. Gray have been placed in a new subgenus of Vittadinia under the name Peripleura. Within this subgenus nine species are recognized: V. scabra DC., V, hispidula F. Muell. ex A. Gray (with two varieties), and the new species V. arida, V. bicolor, V. diffusa, V. obovata, V. sericea, V. spechtii (with two varieties) and V. virgata. With the exception of V. australis which is endemic to New Zealand and V. simulans, a New Caledonian species, all are endemic to Australia; however, V. hispidula has been reported for New Caledonia where it is deemed to be an alien and V. gracilis and possibly V. muelleri appear to have become naturalized in New Zealand. V. brachycomoides (F. Muell.) Benth. becomes the type of a new genus, Camptacra, with two species, both distributed in northern and north-eastern Australia. Eurybiopsis DC. is reinstated, with its single species, E. macrorhiza DC., found only in northern Australia.